Notices by Richard Stallman (rms@mastodon.xyz)

[2/2] Hasina. Atrocities in her name are reported continuing until the very day she fled the country. For an official who makes important decisions to have a close relationship of any kind with an important foreign official is not necessary actual corruption, but the temptation it creates should be considered disqualifying as a conflict of interest. A close relationship of any kind with a decision-maker in a major company should likewise be disqualifying.

[1/2] https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/jan/14/who-is-tulip-siddiq-niece-of-deposed-bangladeshi-pm-who-quit-treasury-role
https://stallman.org/archives/2022-nov-feb.html#27_January_2023_(Leadership_protests,_Bangladesh)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/14/videos-reveal-new-incidents-of-deadly-brutality-by-bangladesh-police

Tulip Siddiq, the UK treasury minister, has resigned because of criticism that her aunt was until recently the president/dictator of Bangladesh, Sheikh

[5/5] of supporting the campaign without opening your computer to unjust (and potentially malicious) software.

[2/5] JavaScript in your browser or are using the LibreJS plug-in. I have done the next step for you: I added `?nowrapper=true' to the end of the campaign URL before posting it above. That should bring you to a page that starts with, "Letter campaigns will not work without javascript!" They indeed won't work without some manual help, but the following simple method seems adequate for many of them, including this one. To start, fill in the personal information answers in the box on the right

[3/5] side of the page. That's how you say who's sending the letter. Then click the "START WRITING" button. That will take you to a page that can't function without nonfree JavaScript code. (To ensure it doesn't function perversely _by running_ that nonfree code, you can enable LibreJS or disable JavaScript.) You can finish sending without that code By editing its URL in the browser's address bar, as follows: First, go to the end and insert `&nowrapper=true'. Then tell the browser to visit

[4/5] that URL. This should give you a version of the page that works without JavaScript. Edit the subject and body of your letter. Finally, click on the "SEND LETTER" button, and you're done. This method seems to work for letter campaigns that send the letters to a fixed list of recipients, the same recipients for every sender. Editing and revisiting the URL is the only additional step needed to bypass the nonfree JavaScript code. I'm sure you'll agree it is a small effort for the result

[1/5] https://actionnetwork.org/letters/meta-reinstate-fact-checking?nowrapper=true

Everyone: call on Meta to resume fact-checking, because facts are not decided by what more people think or whether one view's supporters can intimidate the other views' supporters. Here's how to make the actionnetwork.org letter campaign linked above work without running the site's nonfree JavaScript code. (See https://gnu.org/philosophy/javascript-trap.html.) First, make sure you have deactivated

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/12/california-wildfires-housing-price-gouging-scams

*LA officials warn of price gouging as those displaced by fire seek housing.* As fire losses gradually accelerate, they will gradually increase the national shortage of housing.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/15/yoon-suk-yeol-arrest-south-korea-president-impeachment-police-presence-seoul

South Korea's impeached president was arrested, with a big operation that met with only desultory resistance. Perhaps his guards realized that their primary loyalty was owed to the country rather than to him.

https://prospect.org/politics/2025-01-10-opening-dncs-black-box/

The Democratic National Committee does not publish its list of members. It identifies some members but not others. Now the full list has been published with the help of leakers.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/abortion-ban-laws-linked-to-people-leaving-states-research/

The states that ban abortion tend to have harsh policies towards single mothers and their children. Per year, around 150,000 more households move out of these states than move in.

https://act.demandprogress.org/sign/net-neutrality-ruling-2025/?t=1005
https://stallman.orgtel:+12022243121

US citizens: call on Congress to choose the people over Big Telecom - to save Net Neutrality If you phone, please spread the word! Main Switchboard: +1-202-224-3121

https://stallman.org/glossary.html#global%20heating
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jan/10/warmer-homes-healthier-people-low-carbon-future

Curbing global heating would make life healthier and more comfortable, as well as limiting climate disaster.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/11/venezuela-edmundo-gonzalez-nicolas-maduro-presidential-election

*Venezuelan opposition candidate accuses Nicolás Maduro of coup.*

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/jan/10/ethnically-targeted-violence-raging-sudan-darfur
https://stallman.org/archives/2007-jan-apr.html#17%20March%202007%20(Darfur%20massacres)

Reportedly Sudan has fallen into a race war, with lighter-skinned "Arabs" killing darker skinned "blacks" - though people may also be killed or spared based on specific ethnic groups.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/11/inside-south-korea-president-residence-fortress

The impeached president of South Korea lives in a fortress guarded by his personal guard corps, who won't allow cops in. The parliament wonders how to arrest him. I suggest passing a law to cut off the salaries of his guards. Then they could allow only adequate but boring food in.

[2/2] avoiding global disaster. That chance has now become certainty. I recommend moving your money out of those banks and into smaller ones. Those banks were also among those directly to blame for the 2008 fiscal crisis. I moved my money out of one of them around then. They are Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs. JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo

[1/2] https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/jan/08/us-banks-quit-net-zero-alliance-before-trump-inauguration
https://stallman.org/glossary.html#wrecker
https://stallman.org/archives//2021-sep-dec.html#15_December_2021_(Chase,_Wells_Fargo,_Bank_of_America_and_Citibank)

*Six [biggest] US banks quit net zero alliance before [the wrecker's] inauguration.* There was always a chance that it would be hard to make the banks keep their commitments - that they were giving only lip service to

[2/2] to just above displays symbolic bigotry by capitalizing "black" but not "white". (To avoid endorsing bigotry, capitalize both words or neither one.) I denounce bigotry, and normally I will not link to articles that practice it. But I make exceptions for some articles which report on worse cases of bigotry, and the massacre surely is worse.

[1/2] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/10/tulsa-race-massacre-report-doj
https://stallman.org/articles/bigotry.html

The Department of Justice has released a report on a new investigation of the Tulsa race massacre. This report presents concretely the cruelty and hatred that racism inspires. It was not the only such racist mob attack in US history, but it was perhaps the largest. There are right-wing extremists today who would like to commit more. Ironically, the article linked